The Giants proved they can hit the ball hard, but their pitching and defense hasn’t lived up the billing.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 3: LaMonte Wade Jr. #31 of the San Francisco Giants congratulates Jorge Soler #2 at home plate after both players score off a double by Michael Conforto #8 during the sixth inning against pitcher Tyler Glasnow #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on April 3, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. LOS ANGELES — Rain is in the forecast for the Giants’ home opener Friday, giving them an appropriately gloomy greeting from a disappointing first week.
On average, the ball is leaving their bats at 91.2 mph, harder than every other team but the Chicago Cubs. Only the Dodgers and the Padres, who have played two extra games, have hit more balls at 95-plus mph, Statcast’s definition of hard contact. The Giants have done it on 72 of the 158 balls they’ve put in play.
The free-agent duo provided the hardest-hit balls from either side in all of the final five games of the trip — six, if not for Fernando Tatis Jr.’s 114.7 mph blast in Game 2 — punctuated by Soler’s 452-foot homer late Wednesday that left the ball at 112 mph.The Giants doubled down on pitching and defense in response to the behemoths in their own division.
The third pitch allowed Harrison to almost completely abandon his slider when he and catcher Patrick Bailey didn’t like the shape of it early, an option that may not have been afforded to the young left-hander last season. Winn said his slider, which he worked on with fellow midwesterner and Pirates starter Mitch Keller over the offseason, prevented hitters from guessing between his sinker and splitter, his two best pitches.
They are three games under .500 but already four back in the division race, and they’ll only meet the Padres and Dodgers twice more this season.
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